I am ridding myself of anything Apple and iTunes, but one thing they do well (that Roku does not) is stream music from iTunes to my audio system with Apple TV _ without _ having to turn on the television. Before I purchase the WD TV unit, I need to know if it will stream the music on my new WD My Cloud drive directly into my audio system without turning on the TV … as does iTunes w/Apple TV. Many thanks.
This should be possible if you memorize the layout and device functions. Otherwise a TV is needed in order to navigate and select features or options.
It is almost impossible to play music on the WDTV without a TV on. The navigation is going to be the problem. You cannot do it blindly. The closest thing that I could play my music was using JRiver Music Centre, which costs $50. It has the ability to direct play on the WDTV, but the results were hit and miss. Sometimes it would not play at all. You can control JRiver with an app.
I searched for an alternative way for playing my whole music library because I didn’t want iTunes running all the time, but I gave up. The other acceptable options meant that I would have needed to invest in a whole new ecosystem like Sonos, LG Musicflow or Blusound. There are other options but the navigation is so clumsy I couldn’t stand it. If you don’t listen to music often, then the pain may be bearable. In my case I love music and any moment I can think of a song and want to play it. Streaming is not an option because my ISP is not reliable. Another thing is the difficulty with playlists that WDTV has. They have to be in a specific format otherwise the WDTV would not be able to read them.
I don’t have my TV “On” and the WDTV is connected to a Surround Sound Audio System
it’s pretty easy to do with Android (or an iOS DLNA app) 
example: Bubble UPnP https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.bubblesoft.android.bubbleupnp&hl=en
Step 1: Set the “Renderer” (or “Player” if you like) … in this case it’s the WDTV
Step 2: Set the “Library” … in this case it’s the MyCloud
Step 3 : “Navigation” is done on your Smartphone or Tablet.
Tap on a Song and the WDTV will play it without even needing the TV On (the Music will play through your Audio System)
To control “Playback” … swipe left, then the Media Controls appear (Play, Stop, Pause etc)
Thanks for the responses. I have not yet purchased the WD TV unit, but I figured with an optical audio out the music should be fine without the TV on and navigation would be through whatever device I was using with the WD Cloup app, as Joey has demonstrated. Joey, thanks for taking the time to add the visuals.
A couple days ago I called WD Pre-Sales and I was told, after some repetitive explaining of my inquiry (that’s a shocker, huh?), that I would have to have the TV on. Then he said “Oh, what you need is the WD DVR Expander.” Right. I checked that out and it made no sense at all.
Then I called technical support. The person with whom I spoke was refreshingly honest and said, “I don’t know the answer to your question. Let me check with someone in the next level up.” He did and came back to tell me I should be able to play music without the TV on, but also said I would have to turn it on to navigate to the song(s) I want, then I could turn off the TV. Well, OK, kinda, I guess, for that not very credible answer.
Joey, I agree with your summary. I’m going to purchase the WD TV and try it out with the optical audio out to my surround amp optical in. I see no reason why I can’t play music and navigate around with whatever device I’m using with the WD My Cloud app. The amp is a Yamaha RXV-765 which is several years old, but it has two optical audio ins. Also has an aux in for a portable music player, but the audio quality for lossless music might not be too good with that. No USB in on this amp. I’ll try the optical in.
It’s interesting how clueless customer/technical support people are for the major corporations. Once you are able to get through the language barrier to make them understand your simple question, they still don’t really have an answer for your simple question. While I very much like WD products, their squeezing out every penny of profit that they can means they short-change their customers by out-sourcing their support to an overseas company with staff who are: 1) challenged to understand English 2) challenged to understand the product 3) poorly trained.
Oh well. I’ll post here after trying all this stuff. Thanks again.
That is an interesting app. I might have a look at it. I just want to know if it supports universal search? One of the reason I have stuck wih iTunes, AirPlay, Remote combo is universal search.When I start to type, all the albums, artists, songs ad genres with the typed letters start to appear. In most cases you get to your wanted item without completing the name. The search by folder is tiresome for me. Another thing; does it have the ability to create playlist on the fly? The ability to queue songs whilst playing is important
